The huge sigh of relief you undoubtedly heard late last night emanated from Chicago's western suburbs where I spent most of the evening holding my breath as Daniel Cabrera was making his third start of the season.

Let's dispense with the formality of parceling out the credit for Tuesday night's success so we can move along to the ultimately more important process of determining what's next.

Kudos to everyone involved.  Sam Perlozzo, Leo Mazzone and, of course, Daniel Cabrera himself proved that it was possible to address whatever the right-hander's problem was in his first two starts.  

The most important thing that was established last night was that the problem itself could be solved.  I think we all suspected that it was soluble--that, as I intimated last time, this wasn't a case of Steve Blass Syndrome, for instance--but it certainly was liberating to have it so clearly demonstrated.

The really impressive thing, however, was that it was demonstrated that the problem could be solved very quickly and without any administrative manipulations.  Cabrera wasn't demoted to the minors or placed on the disabled list or pulled from the rotation and sent to the bullpen.  (After his second start, my gut told me that something had to be done; my gut was wrong.  My head told me to defer to the people working with Cabrera every day.)  On Tuesday night, Cabrera, who had walked 16 batters in his first 6 1/3 innings, didn't walk anyone until the seventh inning, when he appeared to tire a bit.  He walked just the one batter in his seven full innings; he hit no one.  He threw no wild pitches.  He allowed one unearned run on just five hits.  He threw 70 of his 106 pitches for strikes.  He went to three balls on just five of the 27 hitters he faced (including the walk).  He fell behind hitters 3-1 only twice (including the walk).  He threw a first pitch strike to 16 of the 27 hitters he faced and fell behind 2-0 only twice.  He never faced a 3-0 count.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a tremendous turnaround.

So congratulations to Perlozzo and Mazzone for whatever they did (and didn't do) to help produce this metamorphosis.  And huzzahs to Daniel Cabrera for successfully executing the plan and for not getting down on himself.

Now what?

Well, the first thing we need is to see Cabrera do this again in his next start.  Against the Yankees.

Actually, allow me to amend that statement.  Cabrera doesn't, in my opinion, have to "do this again in his next start."  He doesn't, in other words, have to allow no earned runs in seven innings.  What he has to do is show, for the second straight start, that he can consistently throw strikes.  If Cabrera's next start is, say, six innings allowing four or five runs but not walking anyone (or walking one), I'll consider it a success.  If he goes out and throws five innings and allows one run and walks six, it will not, in my view, be anything but a step back.

Assuming success (as defined above) next time out, Cabrera then has to go out and repeat this success in another start or two.  At that point, we can largely conclude that whatever caused the wildness of the first two starts is under control and we can cancel the prearranged, every-fifth-day, home oxygen delivery.

And then we can start looking forward to Mazzone beginning the process of moving Cabrera to the next level, which is the legitimate-number-one-starter tier.  

Cabrera's start against the Angels was a fine effort.  He pitched well.  He allowed only six baserunners in seven innings, with no home runs.  The only run he allowed was of the unearned variety.  He fanned six.  

And yet...we know he's capable of doing better, and fairly regularly.  

We've seen it before.

And if Mazzone's able to work his well-chronicled magic, we'll see it again, and at a predictably common rate.

Daniel Cabrera's stuff is electric.  When he's sharp, he's virtually unhittable.  He's displayed this sort of profile on several occasions in his short big league career.  Leo Mazzone's job is coach this player to the point where he's able to harness that sharpness most of the time.

I was thinking about this yesterday: I doubt Mazzone's ever worked with a starting pitcher at the big league level with the kind of stuff Daniel Cabrera has.  The closest would probably be John Smoltz and for my money (file this deep in the "for what it's worth" folder), Cabrera's stuff is a cut above Smoltz's, even when the Braves right-hander was in his prime.

As infuriating as Cabrera's performances have often been, he doesn't strike me as a "head case" or someone who's "unteachable."  Quite the contrary, in fact.  He seems eager to learn and willing to listen.  He mostly strikes me as a still relatively raw, inexperienced pitcher.  

The downsides of this sort of characterization are obvious (mostly revolving around inconsistency).  The upside, however, is that he's still quite malleable, and that's where Mazzone comes in.

Go to it, Leo.  And, pardon our drool as we ruminate on the possibilities.

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